A day trip to the White Heron

If you have watched 007 in “You Only Live Twice” or Kurosawa’s “Ran,” you have already seen the place I am going to talk about: Himeji Castle, located in the Hyogo prefecture (South of Honshu).

Rapid description
Himeji castle is one of Japan’s “Three Famous Castles”. A masterpiece made of wood with white plastered walls (hence the name, White Heron).
The castle was built in the 14th century and today’s construction dates back from the 16th, it was surprisingly not too damaged during the 2nd World War.
It is a typical example of the Japanese style castle: a complex wooden construction sitting on top of a stone base. The white plaster on the walls is mainly for fire prevention purposes.
Ironically (?), this castle was never involved in any wars or battles (although it definitely looked ready for it, even now a lot of guns, swords and things are stored in it).

Tour and interesting features
A lot of powerful people lived in the castle. Each Tokugawa (war lord) always made sure that a powerful clan was ruling Himeji, a further sign of the military importance of the place. Each clan brought its emblem (“mon” in Japanese).

One of the main defense features of the castle was the “stone throwing walls.” Usually, to defend this kind of castle against offenders trying to get in by escalating up the walls, throwing hot oil is a popular method but on a wood construction, this is a dangerous idea. I am sure you will agree. Instead, the Japanese thought about using stones. When looking at the castle from the outside, a lot of little openings can be seen. Inside, each of these openings is covered by a wooden platform.
The castle is said to show the finest Japanese stone throwing hole structure, combining deadly military with highly decorative functions…..

Tips
For those of you who contemplate the idea of visiting this castle and have big feet, bring your slippers with you or make sure you don’t wear slippery (or damaged) socks. The tour inside the castle doesn’t tolerate modern shoes. You wouldn’t want to damage the floor, would you? The tricky part is that there are about 7 stories to the castle and you access each by rather steep, simple staircases….Fortunately, modern Japan did not bring elevators or escalators in there!

- Nico